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www.independentweekly.com.au
11
The Independent Weekly
May 14 - 20, 2010
international
Including The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Independent and AAP
Washington: Workers leaped
eight stories into the sea as
flames engulfed the Deepwater
Horizon oil drilling rig, accord-
ing to gripping testimony heard
on Tuesday during a federal
hearing into last month s Gulf
of Mexico disaster.
The testimony in a crowded
ballroom painted a picture of
chaos mixed with heroism in
the aftermath of an explosion
of natural gas.
Nearby ships raced to the
scene unfolding 80km offshore
as the crew of a solitary supply
boat plucked survivors from
burning water, witnesses
said.
The hearing, convened by the
Coast Guard and the federal
Minerals Management Service,
offered the first broad public
view of the events that led
to a spill already measuring
more than 15 million litres of
oil and threatening the fragile
wetlands of Louisiana and its
multimillion-dollar fishery.
Eleven men are missing and
presumed dead after the April
20 explosion and sinking of the
rig two days later.
In the morning session, the
captain and crew of the Damon
B. Bankston told about 200
people how they scrambled to
save rig workers and coordinate
early rescue efforts.
A Coast Guard official
described doctors on the decks
of rocking boats desperately
performing triage of the
burned and injured, and a
four-day round-the-clock search
that covered 8530 sq km.
The afternoon session was
dominated by legal sparring
among several companies with
potential liability.
The companies included
BP, which owns the oil lease;
Transocean, which owns the
rig; Halliburton, which applied
the cement that is suspected of
being a factor in the explosion;
and Cameron, which manufac-
tured the blowout preventer
atop the well, which may have
failed.
Fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig
Los Angeles: The survival of the
fittest is being put to the test in
the Bahamas to discover whether
lizards are affected more by
competition for resources or by
predators.
By covering large swaths of
land with netting, making lizards
jog on treadmills and turning six
Caribbean islands into Darwinian
laboratories, evolutionary
biologists have made important
discoveries about what drives the
evolution of island lizards.
Ryan Calsbeek and Robert Cox
of Dartmouth College travelled to
the Bahamas to figure out what had
been more important in shaping the
evolution of brown anole lizards.
To do so, the scientists set up
several scenarios: removing the
bird predator, introducing snakes
to increase predatory pressure and
adjusting the lizard population
levels.
A total of 1300 lizards were
released on the islands in May 2008
and 2009, at the beginning of each
breeding season and recaptured
four months later.
On the islands that were crowded
with lizards, the scientists found
that the surviving males had
slightly longer hind limbs, larger
body size and greater endurance.
They concluded that the biggest
pressures faced by the island
lizards --- the ones that would drive
their evolution --- came not from
predators but from competition.
London: The European
Commission hopes a radical
shake-up of the rules governing
the eurozone will be enough to
prevent the single currency area
facing further Greek-style debt
crises in the future.
Jose Manuel Barroso, the
Commission s president, said
there was no choice but for these
countries to submit to the toughest
new rules on economic discipline
since the single currency was
launched in 1999.
Under proposals submitted
yesterday by Mr Barroso, and Olli
Rehn, the EU s monetary affairs
commissioner, the governments of
eurozone countries would have to
submit their budgets for inspection
each year.
The Commission would not have
the power to force an individual
member state to rewrite its
budget.
However, Mr Rehn said there
would be much greater pressure
on nations to adopt more realistic
assumptions about growth,
inflation and interest rates.
In addition, those with higher
levels of debt will face particularly
tough rules.
These rules would effectively
force them to adopt budgets that
mean borrowing begins to come
down.
There are also likely to be much
stronger disciplinary measures
for countries that breach the rules,
including the possible suspension
of EU voting rights.
"We must show that we are seri-
ous about the more fundamental
reforms that are needed," said Mr
Barroso.
"We must now get to the root of
the problem."
The proposals are likely to meet
some resistance.
While members of the single
currency zone have given their
powers over monetary policy --
in particular the setting of
interest rates -- over to the
European Central Bank, moves
towards an"economic govern-
ment" for Europe will be resisted,
particularly by nations that
would feel vulnerable to the power
of Germany, the most financially
strong eurozone member.
Preventing
a future
debt crisis
London: Unless you re a criminal,
you may never have seen one. And
that s why the 500 note has been
taken out of circulation in Britain.
For the serious criminal, the
discrepancy in volume between a
car boot full of money or a bin bag
brimming with notes can mean the
difference between getting away
with it and an extended jail term.
This is why a little-remarked-
upon official policy development
on the denominations in which the
euro is issued has sent shockwaves
through the world of organised
crime.
Until last month, many British
gangsters stored their spoils in
the form of 500 notes, instead of
pounds.
While £1m weighs 50kg in 20
pound notes, the same value weighs
only 2.2kg in 500 notes. This has
made life easier for a growing
number of criminals, since the
euro s introduction in 2002.
Should you wish, for example,
you can swallow 150,000 in 500
notes, or hide 20,000 of them in a
cigarette packet.
The notes have gained the
nickname the "Bin Laden", because
people know they are out there but
nobody ever sees them.
However, fed up with abuse of
the currency, Britain s Serious and
Organised Crime Agency (SOCA),
the Treasury and Home Office have
decided to remove 500 notes from
circulation in Britain.
SOCA s ban follows an investiga-
tion which revealed that 90 per cent
of the 500 notes in Britain are used
for criminal purposes.
London: A coalition government
headed by two relatively young
leaders will take a little getting
used to, in appearances, even before
they get to grips with substance.
Their joint press conference
yesterday had something of the
twin-anchored news bulletin, if not
quite the comedy talk-show, about
it. From now on, this is a double-act
that both David Cameron, and his
Liberal Democrat deputy, Nick
Clegg, would be advised to invoke
sparingly.
Yet the personal rapport and
relaxed bonhomie on display yes-
terday set a pleasing and optimistic
tone that contrasted sharply with
the tired earnestness of the outgo-
ing Labour government. And while,
after 70 years in abeyance, the art of
governing in coalition will probably
take practice, personal compat-
ibility and a sense of common
purpose should help things along.
If these start to falter, they could be
in trouble.
What is fast becoming apparent,
however, is the effort already
invested by both men in this joint
endeavour. The coalition agreement
-- a final, more detailed, version of
which is promised -- is an impres-
sive piece of work for the scant four
days it spent in gestation.
Civility is a start. So, in more
areas than we might have expected,
are the policy compromises set
out in the coalition agreement
and implicit in the first Cabinet
appointments. Mr Cameron may
also have appointed more Tory
moderates than he would have
done, unconstrained by coalition.
The crispness of the agreement
conveys a welcome air of urgency
and efficiency -- an impression
reinforced by yesterday s swift
announcement that Heathrow will
not get a third runway. And while
many key decisions have been
delegated to commissions, this may
not be a bad thing, if it promotes
technocratic solutions above
dogma.
The agreement also serves as a
reminder of the common ground
that genuinely exists between the
Liberal Democrats and a certain
stamp of Tory. The "great repeal"
of superfluous legislation, the
cancellation of ID cards, and the
restoration of civil liberties are
to be applauded, and the coalition
must be held to its word.
There must be grounds for
concern at the speed with which
the new government intends to
start cutting the deficit and what
sacrifices might be entailed -- a
key point conceded by the Liberal
Democrats.
But for coalition government
to work, both sides have to
compromise, and that includes
the Liberal Democrats. Indeed,
their commitment to proportional
representation, which would make
more common the sort of coalition
being tried out here, obliges them
to show that they can operate as
responsible, if junior, partners.
One day is far, far too early, to
predict success or failure. Sooner or
later tensions will test the solidity
of the arrangement.
Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg during their
first joint press conference.
Rig testimony 'massive rescue effort'
Britain's double-act
English thieves favour euro Longer-limbed lizards
thrive under pressure
G
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